1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a method, a system for intelligent weak pattern diagnosis, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, in particular, to the method and system using software and hardware for screening out the weak patterns in the beginning of fabrication process.
2. Description of Related Art
The conventional and essential IC manufacturing steps such as thin-film deposition, mask exposure, and photolithography etching may suffer yield declination since the process may not easily avoid the defects caused by random particles and systematic defects. Low yield rate may result in high cost chip fabrication. Therefore, a fast diagnosis tool for defects in the semiconductor fabrication process is requisite.
Furthermore, the conventional photolithography etching technology may confront the optical limitation while the scale of semiconductor process is getting smaller. The weak defect patterns are just the consequence of complex design layout, optical proximity correction, and the complex fabrication process. The weak defect patterns may cause open circuit or short circuit failure of the design layout. And the failure results in low yield rate. However, it is possible that the known defect patterns or the unknown defect patterns can be recognized in the beginning of pre-manufacturing stage. For example, a weak pattern screen is performed onto the defect inspection data.
Operators of Fab generally utilize an electron microscope, e.g. a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to monitor and preview. Further, an e-Beam scan tool is used to detect and verify the killer detect patterns on the chip. However, the Fab still suffers low yield rate without any benefit of high production or longer product cycle if no fast or innovative technology is incorporated to recognizing the killer weak defect patterns in the beginning of the fabrication process.
It is noted that the conventional defect inspection and analysis tool fails to effectively find out the weak defects in the beginning of the fabrication process.